


So Close To Happiness

by Jaseish (Kymopoleia)



Category: LoliRock (Cartoon)
Genre: Beware, Drabble Fic, F/F, F/M, Season 2, just adding them over here pbbt, spoiler warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:54:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Jaseish
Summary: Some cross-posted multiship lolirock drabbles





	1. Sibling Stuff

**Author's Note:**

> these were all posted on spookyghostnerd on tumblr!

“If we get caught, I’m leaving you behind.” It comes from nowhere, soft and destructive. Like a poison creeping from his mouth and onto her skin, her eyes widening and mouth dropping in confusion.

“What are you talking about? What is THAT supposed to mean?” Praxina crosses her arms and stares at him, heart hammering with disbelief.

Mephisto turns toward her. There’s no joke presented, no smile on his face. “If they catch us, Prax, I won’t get you this time.”

She burns with rage. Hurt, fear, anger, all mixing together and sizzling like a viper in the back of her throat, ready to strike. “I’m not the one who’s going to get caught! You always mess us up and get held back.”

“No, I’m not.” Mephisto steps into her space and points at her. “And sister, don’t forget. The two times we got oracle gems were because of me.”

She frowned. “You wouldn’t have been able to do it without me!”

“No, but maybe you would have been able to do it to if you realized you needed me!” His voice finally raises, tears coming to his eyes.

“I don’t need you!” She yells back, realizes her mistake a beat later.

Praxina wakes up sharply to the thought of a broken sob, covering her mouth with her hand. She rubs Banes’ fur and tries to steady her heart. Phisto was gone.


	2. Iristo

“You’ve got to be mistaking me for someone else.”

Iris frowns at him, crosses her arms. “No, I’m not! I don’t know how you don’t recognize me.”

She’d seen Mephisto in the park, curled up under the weeping willow tree when she snuck over to see if the secret space beneath was free or not. It wasn’t, and the alien antagonist has just looked at her blankly and mumbled that he was sorry.

It was weird.

“Trust me, if I did recognize you I’d have said something.” He huffs. “This not having memories thing is killing me.”

Iris freezes, soft leaves brushing her shoulder blades since her hair had been braided and tossed over a shoulder. She removes the hair tie and combs her fingers through it desperately. “Do I look familiar now? I always had my hair down.”

He grumbles something she can’t hear before sighing. “No. What’s my name?”

“Mephisto. Your- oh, your sister has been so upset without you.” She clutches a hand to her chest. “Her name is Praxina and she needs you back in her life.”

“If anyone wanted me, they would have cared enough to stop that weird voltan boy from sending me through the yellow thing, enough to feed me or clothe me or offer me somewhere to stay. No one cares and I’m here,” his voice breaks, tears bubbling up. “I’m alone.”

Iris’ heart breaks. “You don’t have to worry anymore. Come… come home with me. I’ll take care of you.”

He shoots her a watery look. “You’re just going to toss me out like a stray wolf.”

Iris shook her head furiously, slipping the hair tie onto her wrist and offering a hand. “I’d never lie about that. As… as the next queen of Ephedia, I’m supposed to take care of people. I want to help people. You’ve hurt me before but you still have good in you, Praxina does too.”

“And if I don’t want to be good?”

Iris swallowed. “Well, we’ll get there when we get there.”


	3. Praxiris

Praxina’s heart was hammering in her chest, her whole body shaking with the tenseness of the situation. She’d been excited, ecstatic to finally have won SOMETHING but now, Iris blooming with shanila power and Gramorr threatening to rip her to pieces, something in her chest throbbed.

She feels the familiar weight on her left wrist, and pushes her sleeve up for a second to glance at the friendship bracelet. Mephisto, holding her shoulders, scared for her and shaking like a leaf in the aftershocks of Gramorr’s power, notices. “Prax what is that?”

Praxina shrugs herself out of his grip, the sigils appearing with a thought as her mind is made. “Mephisto get out of here. Go, now.” She doesn’t look at him, knowing she couldn’t bear it if she did. Only when she hears the fwoosh of his magic does she use hers, blasting Gramorr in the back.

He shouts in pain and is momentarily thrown off long enough for the other princesses to free themselves from the crystal prison Iris had constructed, adding their power to Iris’ blast.

“Praxina what are you doing!” He roars over the screeching of their magic. “You’re aiming at the wrong person you imbecile!”

She smiled ruefully, tears springing to her eyes. “No, I’m helping my friends.”

It feels like something in her shatters to say it, some icy front to keep everyone at arms-length, constructed out of fear and in the face of the civil war on her planet, on her home. But when it shatters her heart lifts and she sobs in relief, tears in the corner of her eyes burning from the heat of her magic. Her own shanila, corrupted from dark magic, begins to activate and Gramorr groans in pain, unable to hold off when being burned at both ends.

“YOU’LL REGRET THIS!” His voice transcends loud, shaking her eardrums and rattling her bones.

“No, she’ll be glad she did it! Praxina, I always knew there was good in you.” Iris calls, a sharp thud cutting through the pain as her boots clack against the rubble. “I believe in you.”

Praxina swallows, then feels another burst of power on her end. She glances to her right, gasping. “Mephisto? What are you doing?”

“I’m standing by my sister and doing something… good.” He puzzles over the word for a second, it likely sounding as unfamiliar to his tongue as it had to her own.

Pride burns at the back of her throat and Gramorr falls to his knees, Praxina and Mephisto fwooshing out of the way to avoid the rest of the blast before it obliterated them too.

They end up standing behind Iris’ friends, her grabbing Mephisto’s hand and the princesses watching as Gramorr sags into the cold stone, smoking.

It’s Iris who coldheartedly lifts a hand and shoots at the large pulsing rock, causing it to fall and break the platform he was on, sending Gramorr down into the valley below.

The explosion seals it.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

“Iris…” Talia whispers, the first to break the silence.

“What?” Her shanila slowly drops, her hair returning to its vibrant pink and dress easing into its normal form. Praxina relaxes too.

“You killed him.” Auriana chimes in, both looking straight ahead.

“No.” Mephisto interrupts, causing them all to turn. Iris was the only one not startled, the only one who shared their knowing looks.

“You just saved Ephedia.” Praxina lets the words cross her lips and travel to her tongue, sending a smile back through. “And…”

She and her brother each fall to one knee, heads bowed. Together they say it, though it wasn’t practiced.

“Thank you. We will serve you until our debt is repaid.”

The silence settles back over them, the breeze rustling their hair and whispering as melzors sang and the sun shining back through onto the wartorn land.

Iris stood before them, her boots the only thing Praxina could see beyond the dark wet spots on the rubble from her own tears. Relief was too much, and she was so grateful for the soaring feeling in her chest that she ignored the fearful ones.

Her brother was beside her, her queen before her, and butterflies in her stomach.

“Stand up.”

Iris’ voice cuts through the moment of euphoria, and they glance at each other before doing so. They’re tense now, Praxina’s friendship bracelet still bared and a guarded expression on Mephisto’s face.

Iris steps forward, the rest of the princesses as tense as the twins, no true Ephedian sure what was going to happen.

Iris stepped into Praxina’s space, the latter stiffening with the need to stay still and swallowing nervously. “Yes… your most lovely highness?” She forces the words out, them both familiar and unfamiliar, correct and incorrect.

Iris giggled. It was so out of place, so pretty, like candy for her ears. “You can go back to calling me Princess and all the other rude nicknames. I think I liked them better.”

Praxina blushed and squeaked softly, leaning back a bit as Iris leaned closer. “Ah…. Alright princess.” She laughed at the sound, weird to her own ears. She doesn’t dare say anything else, waiting for more.

Iris smiles and brings a hand up to cup Praxina’s cheek. It’s still warm from her magic, and the runisian can feel the strength of her love, the royal power. It’s so much that it makes her knees weak, and she reaches forward to press her fingers to Iris’ hip to steady herself.

Iris sighs. “Thank you for coming back. I know it’ll take a long time but… I want to help you be good again. Both of you." She spares Mephisto a short glance, just as soft and tender as this one. “I want you to be good and I want you to enjoy it. Is that selfish of me?”

Praxina remembered when she’d lost her memory. She knew that the girls had been selfish then, forcing her to do things that she wasn’t comfortable with, that she had then seen herself as being incapable of. At the same time, the warm feeling when she’d been complimented, when she’d been given a gift (and the melzors knew it was the first time for THAT), and staring into Iris’ eyes before she put on the tiara of runic…. They’d felt good. She’d felt good. Sad sometimes, scared sometimes, but good.

“Yes, but it’s okay.” She finally says.

Iris nods and leans in.

Her lips are really, really soft.

It takes a few seconds to understand what’s happening, to respond in turn, but then… well, she can’t stop. Her hands fall to cup Iris’ hips better while the other girl holds her face still, and the rest of Ephedia blurs out as it becomes just them.

When Iris pulls back Praxina is breathless and Mephisto loudly gasps.

“Oh!” He laughs. “She’s into Praxina! That would have been really weird if she wasn’t.”


	4. Iristo

Iris could feel her hips swing a little bit more when he looked at her.

Maybe it was weird, the something between them, but she wasn’t complaining.

When they fought it was one thing, sideways glances and banter and shots that were just a hair off. When they ran into each other outside of their natural habitats it was something else, her pursing her lips and furrowing her eyebrows and silently asking ‘is it you?’. Then there’d be when she took midnight walks, after the other girls were asleep and aunt Ellen drunk or watching family videos in the living room.

She’d throw the little leather jacket by the door on, pulling her hair to the side and letting the cool air brush her neck. It wouldn’t be that long after she left the barrier that he’d catch up, but she could usually feel him there before he revealed himself. That was a whisper-swish of air or the softest of sighs or a hand suddenly in her field of vision, brushing a stray hair out of the way, gentle and careful.

They had these quiet moments together, just walking slowly. They usually didn’t speak, just basked in the company and comfortable silence. They usually didn’t even need to talk, save for maybe a soft “I should go” or “Praxina wants me back” or other soft talk, “How are you” and “Don’t you think it’s pretty tonight?”.

It’s those moments that flash through her mind as she lays in the rubble. Every step they’d taken, every breath they’d shared, she could have told him how much it meant. What he was to her, that she liked it, maybe she could have prevented it all. Maybe he wouldn’t have betrayed her, maybe he wouldn’t have given her up, maybe he wouldn’t have…

Or maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything. Her eyes fill with watery tears and Auriana falls to her side, holding her white-knuckled with shaking fingers. Iris slowly hugs her back and closes her eyes, letting the tears fall silently, forcing herself not to think about it.

“We won.”


	5. Praxaniel if u squint

Iris could feel something rising in the back of her throat. Maybe bile, maybe something else, she didn’t know. She chokes down another round of drinks with her eyes trained on them, glistening with raw venom and anger barely under the surface. The alcohol spilling over her bruised knuckles hurts worse than the writhing knots in her stomach, than the pounding headache ruining her thought process, through the building pressure in her heels from the urge to spring forward and destroy the sickening sight in front of her.

Someone comes up behind her, the music slowing for a moment before crashing back to rhythm and a pair of pale pink lips smiling ruefully at her.

“You pissed that you didn’t get him either?” Missy asks, flipping her perfect hair over a shoulder. “I always thought it would come down to you or me…”

Iris has to down another cup of whiskey to mask the sneer building on her face. She’d always been told that it didn’t suit her face.

“I didn’t want him.” She points halfheartedly at Nathaniel. “I just didn’t want you to have him.”

“Then why aren’t you celebrating?” Missy plucks a stray hair out of Iris’ face, the wave of nausea hitting her as hard as the tender touch.

Iris swallows it and glances at where he’s dancing with the enemy, the song having changed by now to some hard and heavy dancing song. She was between his hands and laughing as he taught her how to grind, her hips moving like a snake’s charm.

“I didn’t want to win like this. I didn’t want to win with her.” Iris admits. It’s impossible to tear her eyes away.

Missy laughs once, short and harsh. “Get over it, bitch. Take the win. I’m proud of you.”

Iris sniffs, dragging a hand over her eyes and choking on the next wave of nausea and pain. “G-go away.”

Missy pats her shoulder once before pulling back. “You should probably get someone to hold your hair.”

Iris looks at her harshly, and Missy can’t contain the wince of sympathy.

It was clear they had both lost tonight.


	6. Taliristo

Mephisto had always been fond of Xeris.

Maybe it was weird. Maybe it was the pure blue shimmer the country had in his mind, maybe it was the shiver down his spine, maybe it was the magic and secrets they’d held deep inside for so long. Maybe it was the princess he’d gotten to meet once, tall and regal and caring enough to tap his nose gently and tell him he’d looked dashing in his suit.

Maybe it wasn’t weird, maybe it was practical and smart. Xeris was a threat to the empire Gramorr was trying to build, and as a result, a threat to him and his sister. For that, the fascination with the culture was scientific. What were their weaknesses, who were their nobles, what did they eat and how did it taste, what were their celebrations and what did they do casually…

It went very far.

Before long Praxina took notice of his research, and put him into a headlock until he came clean. He told her everything and she made him share the research load with her, and then the assignment came from Gramorr. He’d found out where the princess had been sent and the twins were supposed to find her from there. Some… strange planet, called Earth.

They scour it for weeks, time dripping by like drops of rain on a dry windshield. It seemed like everything slowed to a crawl as they saw hundreds of girls, none with the pendant.  
Eventually Praxina notices another pair of Ephedians, no idea who, and they begin to follow the girls. It becomes clear that these two are searching for the princess too, but with a plan.

City after city they hover after the pair, shadowing their every step but never getting close enough to reveal themselves. It’s exciting, like when he’d just gotten interested in interviewing prisoners as a young teen, taking an interest in their history and culture.

Then, suddenly, it comes to a head.

The magical explosion rocks the very air around them and supercharges the electrical current around them. A girl comes sprinting out of the theater and they know what to do. Mephisto has a flash of wanting to do something, of snatching her up so they could get off the wretched planet before anything worse happened, but something keeps him there. Praxina is as hyper as he is, and when he makes a fist and grins about smashing things… the fear in her eyes gives him an ugly thrill that he doesn’t want to admit to.

The rest of the day went much worse. What was meant to be an easy grab of the inexperienced little duckling turned into a battle. A princess of Xeris, as beautiful and elegant as her sister before her, and one of the throng of Voltans that had plagued the lands for generations. Well, not plagued, that was Gramorr talking. Mephisto had seen enough of them to last a lifetime.

Then there was the other girl, the princess of the free monarchy and the last trick Queen Mora had hidden away. She was smart and quick but not very good with magic yet, something that simultaneously made him want to laugh and show her the correct way.

He and his sister had to rapidly retreat or else be blasted off, but when they got a moment to breathe she had the knowing look she always did.

“Don’t…”

“Too late.”


	7. Praxaniel

The first thing she saw when she woke up was white.

Then she rolled over, shoved her hair out of her face, and tried to remember why she wasn’t in the cave.

It’s a nice enough room, tidy and well put together. the sheets were the only thing that remained, the comforter put away in the heat of the summer and the fan employed instead, lazily twisting over them. The furniture was painted wicker, something her brother had informed her of when they snuck into a store one night to steal some. She smiles lazily and runs her fingers through her hair. Maybe they stole a house? What an upgrade, this room even looks lived in. There’s books spread out on the desk and a shirt on the chair, her shoes kicked to the side and her cape strewn over the bookshelf…

Wait.

Praxina turns to look at the body next to her. That wasn’t her brother.

“What?” She whispers.

“Mm?” It speaks, shifting and sighing heavily.

“Good… morning?” Praxina guesses.

It pulls the sheet down slowly, revealing brown hair, green eyes, a mole on the right cheek. She doesn’t remember his name.

“Morning.” He yawns, stretching and covering his mouth. Aw, courteous. How cute. “Sleep well?”

Praxina glances at herself under the sheets, at her tank top and shorts. “I’d say so. Remind me why?”

He blinks then rolls his eyes and beckons her closer. Begrudgingly, she goes, then he kisses her gently. Suddenly she remembers, and can’t help wincing at the overload.

“Want a few minutes before we go downstairs?” He asks softly.

“Nate… that sounds good.” She rolls over and scoots back until she’s pressed into him. He wraps an arm around her stomach and kisses her neck gently, a butterfly kiss for a butterfly princess.

“We can take all the time you need, Xina.”

She closes her arms and sighs, warm and content. “Thank you…”

“Anything for you.”


	8. Easter Praxaniel!!!

Praxina hadn’t wanted to do the human holiday. She hadn’t wanted to stuff herself into the ‘punny’ sweater (despite choosing it herself and enjoying the soft pink and the soft white collared shirt she wore underneath it) or into the shredded jeans and boots, and don the dreaded ears just to go out into the heat and hold her human boyfriend’s hand. Why was she doing this, anyways? Because it’d make him happy? Because she was morbidly curious?

No.

Because she had a surprise planned, and couldn’t unveil it without enduring the boring parts.

Iris is wandering around in this aggressively poofy crop top and a pair of shorts that have her brother glued to the princess, and Talia is slumming it and talking to some humans by the snack table. Auriana, Lyna, and Carissa are discussing battle strategy for the egg hunt, but Praxina couldn’t find herself focusing on any of them.

Nate squeezes her hand gently, and she squeezes his back.

A smile finds its way into her cheeks. He’s so cute, especially in the soft sunlight filtering through the trees. And with the gentle breeze playing with his hair… he looked lovely. Praxina pushes her bangs out of her eyes with her free hand, and he sighs adoringly like he always does. Dork.

“So what’s the point of this holiday? How does the mammal birth eggs?”

Nathaniel snorts in surprise, covering his mouth as an afterthought. “No, the rabbit and egg thing came later. Um. A political rights activist died a couple thousand years later, so now we eat candy and chocolate and wear dumb bunny ears to remember him.”

“So this is a funeral celebration?” Praxina looks around, a smile finding it’s way onto her face. “How voltan.”

He laughs. “Sure, I guess. Can’t believe you haven’t heard of easter.”

She wishes she could tell him, but Iris had warned her against it. “Can’t believe you haven’t heard of volta.”

He laughs and leans in and kisses her gently, always so tender with her. “Yeah, I guess we both have a lot to learn.”

Praxina taps his chin with her fingernail. “Oh yeah.”


End file.
